The Diamondbacks averted arbitration with right-hander Zac Gallen and first baseman Josh Naylor, in line with reviews from Mark Feinsand of MLB.com and Robert Murray of FanSided. Gallen will earn $13.5M, whereas Naylor will command $10.9M. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected Gallen at $14.1M and Naylor at $10.9M. It’s the ultimate 12 months of membership management for each gamers.
Gallen, 29, pitched 148 innings of three.65 ERA ball final season, representing his lowest innings whole and highest ERA of the previous three seasons. The best-hander missed roughly a month with a hamstring pressure, limiting his time on the mound and maybe additionally impacting his efficiency.
At his greatest, Gallen is an All-Star and Cy Younger-caliber arm. He completed within the prime 5 of NL Cy Younger balloting in 2022 and 2023, incomes his lone profession All-Star nod within the latter of these two seasons. Throughout these two years, Gallen pitched to a 3.04 ERA in 394 innings. Since making his huge league debut with the Marlins in 2019 — Miami flipped him to Arizona that summer time for Jazz Chisholm Jr. — Gallen touts a 3.29 ERA, 26.6% strikeout charge and seven.6% stroll charge in 815 1/3 innings.
Gallen has lengthy been the ace of Arizona’s employees, however he’ll no less than nominally be ran into the No. 2 spot of a possible powerhouse rotation within the wake of the D-backs’ shock signing of Corbin Burnes to a six-year, $210M deal. Burnes, Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, Ryne Nelson, Brandon Pfaadt and rebound hopeful/commerce candidate Jordan Montgomery give the Diamondbacks a wealth of rotation expertise to lean on within the coming season.
Naylor, 27, got here to Arizona final month in a commerce that despatched righty Slade Cecconi and a aggressive steadiness draft choose again to the Guardians. Cleveland instantly pivoted and signed Carlos Santana to a one-year, $12M deal that mirrored the projection for Naylor. Cleveland will find yourself with the pricier of the 2 choices at first base ultimately, although additionally they added a controllable 25-year-old swingman and a choose within the excessive 60s of the 2025 draft.
The 2025 season might be Arizona’s lone 12 months of management over Naylor, coming off a career-best 31 residence runs. He turned in a .243/.320/.456 batting line in 2024, clocking in about 18% higher than the league common by the measure of wRC+. His bat pale barely within the season’s second half, however solely relative to the large first-half numbers Naylor posted (notably in April and June). He was an above-average hitter in 5 of the season’s six months, per wRC+, with the lone exception being Could when he was simply 3% beneath par.
Put extra succinctly, Naylor is a constant slugger who’ll bolster the center of the D-backs’ lineup instead of Christian Walker, who signed a three-year, $60M deal in Houston as a free agent (netting the Snakes a compensatory draft choose after the primary spherical within the course of). Naylor walked at a career-best 9.2% clip in 2024 and fanned at a 16.6% tempo, significantly decrease than the league common.
Gallen and Naylor are candidates to obtain a qualifying supply from the D-backs at season’s finish, positioning Arizona to web compensation within the 2026 draft for his or her potential departure. Gallen, specifically, is a veritable lock as long as he’s wholesome. Naylor would even be a robust QO candidate if he replicates or approximates the .267/.330/.465 kind he’s turned in over the previous three seasons, as he’d attain the market at simply 28 years of age.
